The stories of how I go fast, How I don't go fast enough, and how I want to go faster. all that and a little more.

Me against Him

Racing a BMW

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A Dream Machine

I love bikes. I dream about them all the time, since the day I started riding bikes I've been pricing, figuring up different builds, and figuring up the different weights for those builds. I love to dream about what my next bike could be.

Lately I've been looking into some of my favorite components from the Sram Red group, I'm starting to think about a few upgrades on my Blue Rc8. I really like the red shifters, rear derailuer and OG 1090 cassette- it is one solid piece of CNC'd chromoly steel and on of the lightest-stiffest cassettes in the world.

I have also been looking into different options for measuring power output and I really like the Quarq Cinco Saturn built into a Sram S900 crankset. Crank power meters are a better option than rear hub meters for several reasons: they do not add rotational weight to the drive train, they do not limit you to what wheels you choose, and they are marginally lighter as well as more reliable.

All of this has led me to what happened the other day, almost by accident I typed giant-bicycles.com into my web browser and stumbled upon the TCR Advanced SL frame set. The TCR Advanced SL is the one of Giants higher end frames and it is one of their lightest- just below the ISP (integrated seatpost) version.

Looking into that may have been a mistake because I have just spent the last 2 hours cruising the web building up a dream bike. So here is what I'm thinking:

Sram Red Shiters

Sram Red Rear Derailuer

Sram Force Front D

Sram Force Brake Calipers

Sram OG 1090 Cassette

3T Pro Alloy Bar

Sram BB30 Ceramic Bottom Bracket

Easton EC90 Full Carbon Clinchers

Specialized Romin SL saddle

Speedplay X2 pedals

Garmin Edge 500 Computer

Quarq Cinqo Saturn S900 power meter

With blue and black Fizik Bar Tape and white Sram brake Hoods

This build would cost about $7100 and weigh in- with the power meter- at about 13.5lbs (thats overstating too) in a Size Small frame- which is the one I would need.

It looks a little Something Like this: (Bar tape and hoods not pictued)